I want to change my past
by BeetleBabeOfTheNeitherworld
Summary: A young Anthro girl believed to be an omen of death meets with the group and finds herself wound up in their problem...and her own shaded past. What will she do, face them or continue to run from them?
1. Shakey Pillars and Death Omens

**_I want to change the past_**

**_Chapter One_**

The explosion had shook the entire vicinity of sector one, even now people were running in blind circles trying to figure out what had happened, no one knew.

Cloud ran through the streets trying to get away from the scene of the explosion before anyone could see him, he was an ex ShinRa SOLDIER who was now doing odd jobs for people, in this case AVALANCHE, a small rebel group opposing the ShinRa. The group, and Cloud as he considered himself to be a separate force, had blown up one of ShinRa's Mako reactors. As he ran down one alley a girl in a pink dress help out a hand to stop him.

'Hey, umm…excuse me…but what's going on?' The girl inquired, she held on her arm a basket of flowers with a price tag saying 1gil.

'Nothing…hey, listen…flowers are supposed to be really hard to grow in Midgar aren't they, you sell them?'

'Oh! Yes, you want one? It's only 1gil.'

Cloud thought for a moment, hey why not, it was only 1gil and it wasn't as if he was going to get anything else for that amount of money. He nodded quickly and handed the girl the gil.

'You better get somewhere safe in case of another explosion.'

The flower girl nodded and adjusted her basket of flowers before walking off out of sector one. It seemed to be the only exit from the sector.

Cloud shrugged and started his dash for the train station again, running to the south of the theatre he came across a tunnel, but no station, it must be back the other way. Cursing Cloud turned, but as he was about to run off again a shout stopped him. ShinRa SOLDIERS blocked his way, he backed off and ran back towards the tunnel, more SOLDIERS appeared to his left and right. He was surrounded with his back to the edge of the bridge, great, the SOLDIERS raised their guns but before they could shoot Cloud drew his buster sword and cleaved two of them in half, the others did not react in time to prevent Cloud from jumping over the side of the bridge and landing on the roof of the passing train. Cloud smirked to himself. Perfectly executed plan.

He didn't notice the two crimson eyes watching him from the roof top.

'Interesting…'

The voice and the eyes belonged to a very strange girl indeed, her appearance made her a social outcast, deemed a monster and a omen of death, though the latter was more due to her reputation. You see, she always seemed to show up right before someone dear to her acquaintance suffered a tragic and often horrifying death. Her true name was Tanya, the population had deemed her 'Eclipse.'

Eclipse was an Anthro, more commonly known as 'Half-Breeds', they were half human half animal creatures. The two most common kinds of Anthro being feline and canine, feline were, as their name suggests, half cat creatures and canine Anthro were half wolf creatures. The two were locked in an eternal war, despising each other almost as much as humans despised them. There were two 'stages' of Anthromorphic being. Anthro being the term for half human half animal appearance, and full Anthro being the term for those who were complete animals who, however, retained the human ability to think and speak logically. Full Anthros could be very dangerous due to their human-like cunning yet their animalistic ways of self-defence, namely claws and fangs.

Eclipse was a canine Anthro, her hands were bigger than normal, covered with a dense fur up to just below the elbow and claws took the place of nails, the same went for her bare feet, fur covered the skin half until about way up the shin and claws helping her get a grip on the metal roof. The teeth were all sharper than usual, but not by much, save the incisors in her top jaw which were fully formed fangs. Her ears were not normal either, being huge furry and pointed and situated on the top of her head. Her eyes flashed crimson in the shiny metal, yet another reminder that she was not normal…._not normal._ Hissing to herself through her teeth she swished her long wolf-like tail around behind her as she traversed the roof tops, heading back to her _home _in the loosest sense of the word.

She was not unsightly to look at, that's what confused most people, she was clearly a monster, but she was quiet pretty. Her long black hair just a tad longer than shoulder length, the fur on her arms, legs, ears and tail a blood red and she was slightly underweight. The last one not being by choice, she was a thief, or rather a mugger, she had got herself in with the wrong crowd. She had wanted to prove herself to the bums who had been teasing her because she was a girl, she was an Anthro. A bit of Anthro history here, Anthro were stupidly powerful, they believed this was because they worshiped the water, the water was god, the water created life and destroyed life as it saw fit. But in reality, Eclipse had discovered, they were just amazingly strong beings.

Upon entering the dingy, half destroyed house in sector seven she sighed, it was too empty now that Reno had gone. Lucky bastard, he'd stolen the wallet of a ShinRa exec and not only had he managed to get away alive and _with_ the wallet, the next day the exec had come looking for him to give him a job in the Turks. Idiots got all the luck. Shaking her bangs out of her face she flopped down on the sofa and pulled out her one possession, a book. It was a book about the world in which they lived, it provided and interesting coverage on things she'd never see again stuck here in Midgar.

'Heeeeey! Looky what we got here!'

Eclipse sighed as the book was wrenched from her hands by an over excited human, about her age, taller and with wild green hair. 'Good job we found you little sister! A few more moments reading this and you woulda been comatose.' He winked slyly and tossed the book over his shoulder before sitting himself on the arm of the sofa.

'I thought I told you to stop calling me that, I am in no way related to you, and I hope to god, I really do that it will stay that way Kai.'

Kai just gave a grin and closed his eyes reclining on the sofa arm as if he hadn't heard. Wait, hadn't Kai said…'we?'

Eclipse glanced up to see the more subdued, and frankly more bearable of her two human partners standing behind the sofa. 'Hey Yuan, you in? I hope you did the rounds today cause im hungry and I didn't have time to gather anything. You know Kai won't have.

'On the contrary! Little sister! I did so do my rounds today, and I got enough food for us all, I guess I was motivated by the lack of store guards.'

Eclipse rolled her eyes, figures that Kai would only gather food for them if there was absolutely _no _threat to himself at all.

'Wait a minute, no store guards did you say? Why?'

Kai looked thoughtful for a moment, chewing on a mouthful of bread and blinking slowly as if he was trying to remember something.

'Oh yeah! I remember now, some guy with blonde spiky hair and his friends blew up the number one reactor, I was impressed. Course he had to screw it up buy letting the SOLDIERS track him down didn't he. Fool.'

Eclipse frowned, blonde guy with spiky hair… that guy she had seen jumping the train? Duh, how many guys with blonde spiky hair were there, and he _was_ running from SOLDIERS. This called for investigation.

'I'll be back in a moment.' With that she leapt of the sofa and ran on all fours to the train station intending to follow the tracks, but as she got there the very guy she was looking for and two girls ran past. She dove behind a few garbage bags to hide from them.

Cloud's day was not going well, he had gone through all of that rubbish, dressing like a girl to save Tifa from Corneo only to find out ShinRa planned to bring the plate down on the sector seven slums.

'Just great.' He muttered, dashing along the front of the sector seven train station, Tifa and Aeris, his childhood friend and the flower girl he'd met earlier, following close behind. They ran to the base of the support pillar, finding the security gate open and gunfire resounding from the top level.

'I heard their gonna try and drop the plate!'

Cloud turned to see a man he vaguely knew as Rai the weapon seller looking from him to the pillar worriedly. He just nodded in reply.

'Shit!'

Eclipse cursed from the hiding spot and shook her head in disbelief at what she had just seen and heard. 'The entire plate? They'll damn crush us all! What's the damn idea!' She watched the blonde and the girl in white run up the stairs of the pillar, only pausing to leap from her hiding spot she ran to the steps and gazed upwards, long way to the top.

'AHHHHH! It's The Eclipse! This just proves it… we're all dead!'

Eclipse flinched back slightly as everyone glared at her in fury, she glanced round at all the faces and shook her head sadly. Then remembering the pillar she growled and ran up them, reverting to all fours for extra speed. She saw some nasty sights on the way up, a girl and a boy younger than herself lying in pools of their own blood, dying slowly.

'No doubt this will be blamed on me also,' She stated quietly as she knelt next to the body of the young man. Clearing her head she continued her dash up the stairs clearing four at a time in her hurry. When she reached the top she spotted Spiky and the girl along with a coloured man she'd never seen before. He had a huge gun in place of his lower right arm.

'Here! Who are you?'

Cloud had spotted the Anthro girl and took a step forward, his hand outstretched towards her, she stood up and looked over at the group. Like most canines she only stood on the tips of her feet, the odd canine shape of her legs showed, through the black slacks she wore, quiet well.

'No time, I'll talk later, this bomb cannot go off, I have too much to lose in sector seven to allow this to happen.' She wondered briefly why she had said all of that about Kai and Yuan, but it soon hit her that they were the only family she had, and were they only people who didn't scream, recoil or run at the sight of her. Then again, neither had these people. Shaking it off as a moot point she walked over to the control panel and cracked her fingers, ok, time to do what she did best, mess with electronic equipment.

'You know how to stop this thing?'

The brown haired girl had walked up to her shoulder and peered over it at the screen below.

'This is odd,' Eclipse stated, her head cocked to one side, she absently tapped a claw on the metal frame round the panel. 'It cannot be disarmed….not even by hackers….'

'Oh no!' The girl panicked and buried her head in her hands to stop herself from crying. For once Eclipse felt pity, but it was rudely interrupted by the sound of chopper blades and the thud of someone landing on metal.

'I'd get away from that panel if I were you,' the voice belonged to a young man with flaming red hair and a sloppy blue suit. 'I don't want to have to hurt you Eclipse.'

Eclipse felt her hands clenching and her tail twitching violently behind her as if it were on fire.

'Eclipse!' The other girl turned and frowned at her, 'You're The Eclipse? So that's why you didn't tell us your name!'

Eclipse gazed at her and sighed lightly, shaking her head, then she turned her gaze back to the man before her.

'Reno….please, stop the timer, how can you let that thing blow. It will kill Kai and Yuan, we were a team…we were...' She stopped herself but stood on the spot and shook.

'Afraid I can't do that Clips. After all, we're on different sides now.' Reno pointed his Electro-Mag-Rod at her and gave a sad smile.

Eclipse lowered her head sadly, since when had they been on separate sides, she didn't have a side…

'I'm on no one's side Reno, I'm on my own side, I just want to save the only people who care about me.'

Reno gazed at her for a moment, then he too lowered his head, this was not gonna be easy…he held out one arm in invitation.

Eclipse took it, running up to him and hugging him tightly, unable to stop the tears flowing.

Reno looked down at her and a flash of pain and sadness crossed his features as the emotional wreck that was Eclipse let go of him and walked towards the stairs.

'Tha' was the great Eclipse!'

The coloured man snorted in disgust, he hated weak people, he hated weak people with great reputations even more.

'Shut…your...god damn mouth!'

Reno had his head lowered still, his gaze on the floor, his hand clenched tightly around the Electro-Mag-Rod. 'You know nothin! You know nothin of the shit she gets! And for what? A bunch of bull she didn't even have anything to do with! You know NOTHING!' Reno dove for the brown haired girl his weapon brandished to deliver a fatal blow.

Eclipse stopped and watched in horror, the girl hadn't even done anything, it was the coloured guy who had mouthed off…she narrowed her eyes, she did not like pointless violence.

Tifa had braced herself for the killer hit and cowered on the floor, having no time to protect herself, the hit never came. A streak of black and red flew in front of her and there was the sound of a thwack followed by a grunt of pain and a thud as a body hit metal. When she opened her eyes she saw The Eclipse standing over Reno who was recovering on the floor. The Eclipse did not look happy, her fists were clenched so tight that her own claws cut into her hands causing them to bleed, her ears were plastered back against her head in an instinctive reaction and her tail bristled.

'Ahh…motherfuckin shit Eclipse…thought you didn't take fuckin sides! Thought you were my fuckin…friend…'

Eclipse glared down at him and unclenched her hands as the pain bit in. She didn't move but she spoke.

'Wrong. True I don't take sides, I am still not taking a side. But I am not your…friend. You are not Reno, I was close to Reno, not who you are now. Pointless and vicious acts of violence.' She looked calm and stoic now, except her tail that swished from side to side lazily. 'You've changed.'

Reno stood slowly, the backhand from Eclipse had knocked him back a few good feet which didn't surprise him as it did AVALANCHE, he knew about Anthro. He walked around Eclipse heading for the railing with his hands in front of him to show he wasn't going to attack anyone. He had dropped his weapon in surprise anyway. The sound of chopper blades thundered through the enclosed space and Reno sighed noticeably.

'Am sorry Clips…sorry I couldn't be the guy you wanted me to be. I really am. I guess I deserve everything you give me now.'

Eclipse gave a sad nod and bent over to scoop up Reno's Electro-Mag-Rod from the floor where he had dropped it.

'I'm sorry too Ren, I wish it didn't have to be this way, just remember, I'm on no one's side. I was only trying to stop you from doing something you'd regret.' she proved the words were genuine by tossing him his weapon. 'Also…before you go…' she sprung clear over AVALANCHE, with a jump dragoons would envy, to land beside him lightly.

Reno gave her a questioning look that didn't last long as she captured his lips in a passionate kiss that he slowly warmed to and, as he had many a time before returned it, wrapping his arms round her softly and pulling her close. As she pulled away Eclipse gave him an affectionate nip with one of her fangs and smiled slightly at him. 'Don't worry Ren, I'll always be there, to protect you or…' she smirked knowingly at him '…To stop you screwing up as usual.'

'Hey! I don't 'screw up' I….genuinely fail!' Reno laughed and gave her a soft bat with his hand, then with a slow wave turned and jumped over the railing surrounding the platform.

Tifa let out a slight gasp that vanished as a chopper flew up, Reno had obviously jumped onto the craft. But the man on the side platform was not Reno, this one even Eclipse didn't recognise. That was clear from the way she bristled and her ears pulled back apprehensively, she sensed danger.

'Who the hell are you!'

Cloud had took a step forward and pulled out his buster sword in a half threatening manner, but Eclipse stopped him when she noticed the girl in pink crouched next to him.

'That girl is a friend of yours, I think? It would not be wise to act rashly.'

Cloud's eyes narrowed as he recognised the girl on the chopper, of all the dirty stunts to pull, this was the lowest….

'What are you gonna do to Aeris! And just who are you anyway!'

'SHUT UP!' it took Cloud a moment to realise the harsh snap came from the normally quiet Eclipse. She let out a breath, 'I know how to deal with people like this, do not anger them,' She glanced back up to the dark haired man. 'Let's handle this logically you are wearing the same uniform as Reno, except in a tidier fashion, so you are obviously a Turk and a higher rank than Reno, Reno is second in command, which out of sheer elimination, makes you the boss. You are Wutainian because you are lightly tanned and you were exiled as you have that dot on your head.'

The Wutan looked down on her, obviously impressed, but even though, he still carried that wry smirk and professional 'friendly neighbourhood assassin' look about him.

'Tseng, leader of the Turks, your logic is admirable and I'm impressed, but I really must go, got to deliver the package.'

'You mean that girl? Gee, seems a bit extreme to get a girlfriend, crush an entire sector….'

'Ahh she's not my girlfriend, she's a Cetra, that…and well it was also to crush a small rebel group by the name of AVALANCHE.' Tseng gestured to the people behind her. 'So if you don't mind, I'll be off.' The chopper took off and flew away from sector seven, but not before Reno yelled out the window.

'Get out of there alive Eclipse! Screw those morons! I need you to stop me screwing up!' His voice was pained and he sounded near tears as the chopper zoomed past them and vanished into the distance.

Eclipse stared after it longingly. Then the pillar shook. She teetered slightly then regained her balance.

'Shit!'

Tifa started for the stairs but Eclipse grabbed her arm shaking her head, not a good idea then Tifa guessed.

'That's twice you've saved me, remind me to thank you later! Your not the evil person people make you out to be!'

Eclipse just snorted.

'Feh!'

Barret had stopped near where Reno had jumped the railing, he was holding a wire in his left hand and smiling broadly.

'We can ge' out wi' this!'

Cloud nodded his approval and he, Tifa and Barret jumped on though they didn't move, they were waiting for Eclipse. However Eclipse growled at them and shoved Barret from behind.

'Not enough strength in the wire, you go, I'll wait.'

'Yer nuts!'

Eclipse gave a grin and then shoved him hard enough to dislodge him, Cloud, him and Tifa swung over to the playground area and landed safely, then the wire began to swing back up towards the pillar. Slowly. A huge chunk of metal slammed down behind her and she jumped onto the railing, as she balanced on the railing more fell almost dislodging her, not enough time! She jumped off the railing and closed her eyes as the entire thing gave way behind her with a crash and a huge explosion, she was falling fast as the air ripped at her clothes, but her canine reflexes came in top notch and she lashed out one arm, snatching the end of the wire just barely, it swung her to the playground where she left go and landed softly beside Tifa.

'Holy shi' man! Don' ever pull summit like tha' ever 'gain!'

Cloud and Tifa looked pale with fright and Barret just looked plain shocked. The silence lasted a good five minutes before Barret clapped her on the shoulder and gave a grin. 'Am impressed tho' nice goin' kid.'

Tifa nodded with a small smile and Cloud just laughed with relief as Eclipse raised an eyebrow.

'So what? Am I being praised or scolded for it?' She laughed lightly and shook her head. 'You guys are all screw ups. Numskull screw ups.' It was then she remembered Kai, and Yuan. 'DAMN! KAI! YUAN! MY HOME!' She growled and dashed up to the wreckage of sector seven, pounding and scratching at it with her claws, Barret soon joined her, yelling about his daughter Marlene.

'Um Barret, Aries took Marlene to a safe place, I'm sure she's fine,' Tifa turned to Eclipse, 'But your friends and your home…I'm sorry, they won't have made it out of that…'

Eclipse nodded her agreement sadly, then shook her head.

'At least I got to see Reno one last time'…she lowered her gaze.

'The Eclipse, did you and Reno, have something more than friend-'

Eclipse raised a hand and smiled at Tifa before running the hand through her hair to straighten it out.

'Call me Eclipse, that's my name after all. Not 'The Eclipse' and before you ask, I'm not gonna bring doom to you or anything. All that is a bunch of crap. I have this bad habit of trying to help people in danger, and when I fail people blame me because I was at the scene of the death….and I'm different…' She'd successfully avoided the question, Eclipse smiled, 'Oh I'm _good_!'

Tifa nodded knowingly, she understood what Eclipse meant, after all it was hard to be different in a world that demanded everyone be the same.

'You mean people need someone to blame, and they use you as a scapegoat, it gets easier as the rumour spreads too I guess. If you don't mind me asking….er…what-'

'You mean to ask what am I, it's ok, it's not distasteful, I am an Anthro, half human half animal people. There are two major species of us cat and wolf, feline and canine. There are also full Anthro, but those are rare, their like full animals with the speech and wit of humans.'

Cloud blinked and put his hand to his head in deep thought, Anthro…Anthro….where had he heard that before….no matter. He simply nodded and turned to walk away from the scene.

'Let's go to Aeris house and talk to her mother, she may know something. Are you coming with us Eclipse?'

Eclipse frowned in thought, might be worth it, just as long as to help them get Aries back anyway…that way she could get home quickly….again home in the loosest sense of the word.

'I will go with you until you get Aeris back, then I must return to Gongaga, to my original birthplace…to my home.'

The three nodded and the group of four headed out of the playground towards sector five and Aeris house.


	2. Fun With The ShinRa

I want to change the past

Chapter Two

Eclipse wasn't impressed, AVALANCHE were standing in Aeris house talking to her mother about Aeris being a Cetra or some such thing. She didn't care, she just wanted to save Aeris and go home to Gongaga.

"Can we GO now!" She snarled after they struck up conversation for the fifth time, this was getting them nowhere.

"You just want to see Reno again." Tifa shot back coolly with her hands on her hips and a glare in her eye. Eclipse let a wolf like snarl trickle up out of her throat and threw her hands up in exasperation.

"Fine, yeah, whatever." She stalked out of the house her nails making little clicking noises on the flooring. She stopped outside of the door and sat down against the wall to sort out her equipment. Strapping on the two arm blades was easy enough, she just had to sort out her materia, finally she settled on: Cure-All and Fire-All in her weapons and Ice and Bolt in her armour. "Hmm, something's missing." Fishing in her pockets she brought out a necklace. "Hey, Reno found this ages ago, before he joined ShinRa. I remember asking if it was edible." She smirked to herself and tied it round her neck carefully, it was star shaped and quiet shiny.

"Yo, half-breed, we're going."

Eclipse snarled under her breath and stood slowly, shoving the pendant under her shirt, flinging her black cape round and over her shoulder.

"Do not call me that. I will retaliate." She strode off only slowing halfway to sector 6 to allow Cloud to take the lead, after all she didn't know what they were going to do next. She simply followed Cloud and the others as they bought some batteries and made their way to a wall.

"How do we get up here? It's huge!" Cloud stated in annoyance as they came across the massive obstacle.

"Here, it has foot and hand holds," Eclipse grabbed onto a ledge and swung herself gracefully up, hooking her foot-claws into a foot hold. She concentrated and scaled the wall with immense speed and grace.

"Nice!" Cloud shouted up to her, "But we can't do that!" He gave her a glare and folded his arms in that oh so stubborn way of his.

"Useless Humans…" Eclipse spotted a thick wire to one side and ran on all fours across the top of the wall. "Looks sturdy enough…well if it's not then I guess that's that." She tossed the wire over the side of the wall and down to Cloud and co.

"This goes a long way up….think we can make it?" Tifa glanced up the wall doubtfully, then she spotted Eclipse glancing down at them, tapping her foot with an almost amused look on her face. "Out of my way." Tifa barged past Cloud, scowling and started her climb up the wire.

"Guess we have no choice…." Cloud started to follow Tifa up the wire slowly and watching his footing, Barret shook his head and followed Cloud up reluctantly.

"Finally." Eclipse shot at Tifa as she scrambled onto the top of the wall panting loudly.

Tifa looked up at Eclipse from her position on the floor and glared, expecting to see the wolf-girl smirking or laughing. But she was doing neither, she had a poker-faced look of indifference about her and was merely looking down at her.

"You ok?" Eclipse asked, her tone still indifferent and her arms folded across her chest. Tifa just gave a nod and got to her feet to peer over the edge at the two companions still climbing.

Cloud was almost to the top when disaster struck, he swung his arm up to grab the edge of the wall and his grip slipped, he fell away from the wall and the wire.

"Cloud!"

Eclipse spun at Tifa's scream and flung out an arm, grabbing Cloud by the shirt in mid fall. She chanced a glance at Barret who seemed to be ok and then swung her arm up, literally flinging Cloud onto the wall next to Tifa. He stood up shakily and nodded at her.

"Im ok," He turned to Eclipse, "Thanks, I thought I was dead, then who would have saved Aeris."

Eclipse raised an eyebrow then turned to the pile of junk before the group, without a word to any of them she started up the pile keeping an eye on her footing and the structure of the junk pile.

Cloud frowned at her back and followed her at a steady pace, stopping every now and then to help Tifa along. They had to stop to use the batteries also, which proved essential if they wanted to get to the top.

"There…," Tifa beamed as she fit the last battery in place and turned to the group, "That's the last one so that must mean we're close."

Eclipse gazed at her for a little while and then gave a bored nod and motioned to a pipe with her head.

"That we are. I smell mako, and it is coming from up there." Once again she let Cloud take the lead and lagged behind Tifa and Barret a little. This was a bad idea, she could feel it, her ears were plastered back and her tail bristled at the thought of entering the ShinRa building.

Tifa gasped, Eclipse started and ran forward ready to help, but she soon saw why Tifa had gave a gasp, the ShinRa building loomed before them. It was huge, no, massive, hell there was no word to describe the sheer size of that building.

"Well, looks like we have our work cut out for us. Can I suggest we move, even though I am not on any side, I feel that if I was to be seen out here with you people then I would most certainly be shot."

"I plan on being seen" Cloud stated with a wry smirk, he started towards the doors leading into the front of the building.

"I feel I MUST object," Eclipse growled, "Are you serious? That has to be the worst idea you have ever had. Ever." The group however was following Cloud, she gave a sigh. "Has he not learned to listen to me by now." It was a statement, not a question.

As predicted the people inside the building screamed and scattered when AVALANCHE burst through the doors, all but two. The SOLDIERS headed right for them, guns a blazing.

"Heads up!" Cloud drew his Buster sword and got into his battle stance as the two came closer.

"Please. THIS is all we are worthy to fight? I was expecting something a little tougher that these two morons."

"Shu' up an fight half-breed!"

Eclipse snarled and slashed for him with one of her arm blades, missing by inches as he leapt backwards. Seething in anger she turned towards one of the SOLDIERS and swung her other arm up, effectively gutting the SOLDIER with the blade.

"Out of my way!" With her slightly….late warning she made a sprint for the elevator, hitting the button to go up as she skidded to a stop, her foot-claws skittered on the polished floor for a second.

Cloud, Tifa and Barret joined her not long after, having dispatched the SOLDIER'S buddy.

"Up? You sure girl?" Barret asked suspiciously.

Eclipse rolled her eyes and gave a half snarl, "We are on the GROUND floor moron. Where else can we possibly go?"

"Oh…righ'…sorry." Barret shifted sheepishly and let Cloud and Tifa enter the elevator before him, only shoving in front when Eclipse started to enter.

"Watch it, you are on thin ice already in my book." She gave him a glare and stepped into the lift. "The highest we can go is floor 59 by the looks of this pad…"

"Hit it then, not like we have any choice, Aeris is bound to be on the high security floors, which are proberbly higher up."

Eclipse nodded and hit the button starting the elevator, thankful that at least one of the group had some form of common sense, if not much. "Proberbly, but we may want to be careful, I am also guessing that SOLDIER general's and the Turk's quarters are up there, after all, they are elite employee's. The last thing we need is to be caught before we rescue Aries."

Tifa gave a snort and glared at her, "Turks? You better not get us caught just so you can see that red haired bastard again. "Eek! What are you doing!" Tifa had leapt backwards as Eclipse had shot a fist out, missing her by inches and slamming into the side of the elevator.

"Watch your mouth girl. You do not want to say the wrong sort of thing around me." The look on her face was like staring into the hurricane and waiting for the worst of the storm. She hadn't snapped, her face was still poker straight, but it was easy to tell she was pissed off.

Tifa shook slightly and nodded, then another yelp issued from her as the number on the LED display above them started flashing with numbers in no particular order. "What's wrong with the lift! Stop it!"

Eclipse walked over to the panel and lazily flicked one of the switches, not having to look at which one it was. The elevator shuddered to a stop, but the doors did not open, she had hit the emergency stop. She used her claws to wrench the panel open and crouched down. "Hmm, some sort of emergency reaction to the alarms we set off on the way in here. Well, I shall just have to fix that shall I not." She found what she was looking for and grabbed a black and red wire, ripping it out of the circuit. "Cloud, try one of the buttons."

Cloud again hit the button for the 59th floor, the lights flickered on and the elevator started it's way up again slowly.

"Phew! That was close, how come you know so much about ShinRa electronics though Eclipse?"

Eclipse shrugged and motioned to the panel behind her, which now had the covering back on.

"It is not just ShinRa electronics, I am good at figuring out all kinds of electronic devices. I do not know how I am good though, it is just a natural thing." As she stopped speaking the elevator came to a stop on the 59th floor and the doors pinged open. The floor was empty save for three guards standing near the glass elevator.

"That must be the executives elevator….you know….for all those ShinRa bigwigs…" Cloud started towards them. "Well, we have to get in them, so lets go!"

"Cloud," Eclipse walked up to his side and looked at the elevator, this seemed too easy. "All the floors above this one are guarded by key card security if I remember rightly. Without them we will not be able to proceed."

Cloud nodded and turned to Tifa and Barret, "We'll take out the guard then look for the key card, right?"

The other three nodded their agreement and the group approached the SOLDIERS who seemed to be encased in a red armour.

"Get them!"

"Oh shit." Cloud drew his sword and swung it at the nearest guard, Tifa helping him with punching attacks. Barret took on another SOLDIER with his gun-arm and Eclipse went for the last one.

She soon found that physical attacks did not work very well, the tough armour was made of metal. Though that did give her the idea of using her Bolt magic to get through the armour, it soon shattered under the onslaught of magic, leaving the machine-like SOLDIER exposed to her arm blades, it did not last long after that.

Cloud, Tifa and Barret soon finished off their SOLDIERS, while they didn't have Bolt magic they did have other forms and mainly used Ice and Fire magic, which did not do as much damage as Bolt but worked all the same.

"Hey, look at tha' he dropped the key card." Barret held up the shiny plastic square for all to see. "Now we jus' gotta ge' to floor sixty."

Tifa entered the glass elevator first and pressed the button for floor sixty after everyone entered. There was little conversing and they soon reached floor sixty, this floor was heavily guarded, and there seemed to be no way past the ShinRa goons blocking the way.

Eclipse narrowed her eyes and headed for a doorway to their left, when the whole team was inside the tiny room she peered out of another door leading to the right, there were a bunch of statues with a measured gap in-between each of them.

"Of course….Cloud you go first, just hide behind the statues and RUN for the next one when those morons turn away.

Cloud nodded and ran out of the door to the first statue, he waited until the goons turned to walk and dove for the next one, finding that it worked he repeted the process until he reached a huge statue in the middle, he then beckoned to the others.

Eclipse went first using her speed and agility to avoid being seen by the two rather oblivious soldiers. Tifa followed her and then Barret, who had slightly more difficulty due to his massive bulk, but he managed.

"It is not over," Eclipse stated, and she pointed to a second row of statues and in the distance, a door, "We have to get over to that door then go up I am inclined to think."

In a silent decision Cloud went first again, just making it past the eyes of the guards unnoticed, Eclipse again followed, Tifa and Barret going after her, the three dashed in the doorway, Cloud soon following.

"Ok, two stairways. I'm guessing we go up," Cloud pointed to the stairs leading up, "After all, it's what we've been doing so far, and so far so good right?"

The group all nodded and ran up the stairs one after the other, they ended up in another small room, not unlike the one downstairs.

"Hey! The doors open," Tifa had walked straight out of the room and the door was still open.

"Tifa," the brown haired girl turned to Eclipse, "I appreciate your discovery but we are inside your enemies building, please show a little more caution if you will."

Tifa blushed and nodded as the rest of the group joined her in what looked like a cafeteria turn lounge.

"Move!" Eclipse hissed and dragged them back into the room as a familiar man in a navy blue suit stalked past them and into the elevator, it was the Turk from the sector seven plate, Tseng. "You are all morons, the lot of you, this is the ShinRa execs lounge, do you not think that there will be ShinRa elites around?" Shaking her head she looked out of the door and scanned the room, there did not seem to be anyone else she recognised so she walked out of the room towards the elevator.

"Hey!"

Cloud spun round to see a man in a grey uniform looking at them, he did not look angry, just surprised to see them.

"Who are you guys?" He added when he caught up to them.

"…." No one spoke, afraid that if they did something would happen and they would be found out.

"Oh, I get it, you must be those ah….ShinRa maintenance guys right? It's about time someone took a look at those windows. Here, take this key card and have a look at the other floors as well."

Eclipse hung to the back as Cloud took the card, afraid that if the man saw her he would realise they were not here to do maintenance checks. Unable to believe their luck the group made a break for the elevator and pressed the button for floor sixty-two.

There seemed to be nothing of interest on this floor, but they still needed the key card for the next floor up so they started to search each of the rooms, they appeared to be libraries, the last room they entered had a man pacing back and forwards.

"Hi! I'm the mayor of Midgar, well, as much of a mayor as I can be controlled by these corporate bastards. Hey! Are you guys here to screw with them?"

The gang didn't speak, surprised at the man's obvious happiness, shouldn't he be angry…calling guards?

"I want to help you guys, so hmm let's see, if you can guess my favorite word, I'll give you a key card that will allow you to get up to the sixty-fifth floor. Get it on the first try and I'll give you a special prize as well."

The group turned to each other and nodded, not having any idea they turned to the man guarding the door for clues, he told them to find the misplaced books in each library and use the number to find one letter of the word in the title. They split up and each went to one of the four libraries.

Cloud went into the Space research, Tifa to Urban development, Barret to the Science research and Eclipse to the Weapons development and Mako uses research. They all grouped together 10 minutes later.

"I got an M" Cloud stated as Barret joined them.

"I found K"

"Jes' O"

"Well, I found the letter A, so I guess we just have to un-jumble the letters and make a word. The Mayor gave us a list to pick from right? We should just pick off that list, the word that contains this selection of letters."

They all nodded and made their way back to the Mayor's office over the other side of the floor.

"So? Did you get it? Is it BEST, KING, ORBS, BOMB, MAKO or HOJO?"

Eclipse seemed to be mentally spelling out the words slowly, after a few minutes she looked up at him with her crimson eyes, he shuddered slightly.

"Out of sheer elimination, the word must be Mako, as it is the only word that contains the selection of letters we found."

"C-correct!" He squeaked, looking rather afraid of Eclipse, "And on the first try too! For that here's the key card, and like I promised, take this elemental materia."

Eclipse took the orb, her nails clicking against the glass surface as her hand enclosed around it.

"Thank you."

They started to walk back to the elevator when Cloud brought up a good point about the key card that deserved some thought.

"Do we head straight up to the sixty-fifth floor? Or do we stop on the sixty-third and sixty-fourth?"

Eclipse turned to a floor-layout map and read the names of the two offending floors.

"A storage room and a Gym? No need for either I think? We just head straight up, I want to get out of this building."

Everyone nodded their agreement at the statement, whether it was at the first bit or the last bit she didn't know, but they filed into the elevator and pushed the button that would take them up two floors. When it stopped they walked out cautiously, expecting enemies.

"Empty floor again? How boring." Tifa sighed as they reached the centre of the room.

"Boring? Be glad, we are not here for excitement, we are here to save Aeris before being caught." Eclipse swivelled her ears as she heard a noise, it did not sound again and she relaxed.

"You are right of course, we'd be lost if we didn't have you Eclipse, I'm glad your on our side."

"I am not." Eclipse said plainly as she walked past Tifa to a room in the centre of the floor.

Tifa sighed and shook her head, "You have to pick a side someday Eclipse-huh?" She spun to face Cloud who had put a hand on her shoulder.

"Let her go Tifa, she made up her mind long ago about this, I can tell." He followed Eclipse through into the room and Tifa and Barret soon traipsed after them.

"Holy Shi'! What's this thin'?" Barret had stopped in the doorway, the lights flickered on revealing a huge model of Midgar.

"Interesting. Some of the pieces seem to be missing." Eclipse stated, without missing a beat, Cloud was really starting to dislike the indifference she held about everything.

"At least show some interest in what we're doing Eclipse." He ground out his teeth clenched.

Eclipse looked at him silently and after a while shrugged before walking out of the room and making her way to another. "Whatever."

"She wasn't like this in front of Reno, something is wrong, something involving those two." Tifa blew at her bangs and followed the Anthro-girl out of the room, she found Eclipse standing over the corpse of a blue eel-like monster.

"Monsters roam this floor, be careful." Eclipse entered the smaller room without another word. When the others entered they found her bent over a box, hearing them enter she turned and showed them what looked like some of the missing pieces to the model. "The others would not open, I think we have to do this one at a time, that would take too long, each of you go into a room, I'll put this in place and when your chest unlocks bring the piece to the middle room."

The group split and headed to different rooms, Eclipse ran to the centre room again, but on the way another of the eel-monsters attacked her. Placing the Midgar parts down gently she turned to the monster and snarled, it reacted with a swipe of it's tail at her chest, she jumped backwards to avoid the attack and then swiped the monster with consecutive slashes of her arm blades. It screamed but attacked again cutting her across the side of the face leaving an X shaped cut, the cut was bound to scar.

"Bastard, you will pay for that." She concentrated hard and unleashed her limit break, the fur on her arms spread to cover her entire body, face included, and her face contorted into a true wolf face with a snout and slitted pupils, yet she was still humanoid. She let out a roar and dove forwards gripping the monster throat with her clawed hands, digging the claws in hard and then tearing outwards ripping it clean in half. Her breathing slowed and she turned back into her normal self, well as normal as a half wolf-person was getting. Sniffing disdainfully she entered the centre room and placed the parts in the slot.

"Finally!" Tifa opened her box and ran with the parts to the centre room as fast as she could, seeing the monster corpse outside she flinched at it's mangled state. "Did Eclipse do that…." She dove into the room and handed the parts to a very bloodied Eclipse.

"Good work Tifa," She placed Tifa's Midgar parts in the right place and then turned to face her, "Go help the others."

"Oh my gosh! Eclipse, what happened to your face…did that monster do that?" Tifa examined the X shaped cut and used Cure on it, it would speed up the healing process and reduce the chance of infection. "That's gonna scar you know…"

Eclipse shrugged it off as nothing and for the first time in ages she gave a wry smirk.

"It is nothing, go and help Cloud and Barret." As she said this Cloud walked in holding some Midgar parts. Eclipse fitted them in and got more fussing over her injury from Cloud. Very soon they had fitted all the pieces in place, they made their way to the stairs wondering where the key card was.

"There!" Tifa ran up to a box and opened it, sure enough, it was the key card for the sixty-sixth floor, they continued up the stairs and used the new key card to open the door on the next floor.

Cloud led the group into a room full of executives, thankfully they were too busy to pay too much attention to the new people and passed them off as employees, one even telling Cloud that they could hear talking while in the toilets down the hall. The group all gave each other knowing looks and backed out of the room.

Eclipse gave another hand here, standing on the toilet and wrenching the air vent cover off she jumped into the vent before leaning out and giving the others an hand up. They crawled along blindly for a while until the heard talking, a grate in the bottom of the vent showed a room full of the ShinRa bigwigs, the gang crowded round to listen.

Cloud looked up halfway through and scratched his head thoughtfully, he looked confused.

"What are they talking about?" He whispered, but he was cut off as a door slammed below, they looked back down to see a scientist with a white lab coat, black hair and glasses talking about Cetra, he was saying something about the new specimen being inferior to her mother and that the research was going to talk longer than any human had in their life. He was going to breed her to make it easier to carry out the research from a long period of time, his name seemed to be Hojo.

The executives all got up and left the table, however one of them, a woman with blonde hair and wearing a red dress stopped, she glanced up to the vent and the group ducked out of sight.

"….something stinks." She sniffed disdainfully and stalked out of the room with the rest of them.

Cloud looked up again his eyebrows knotted in confusion and his hand to his head, he turned to Tifa.

"They were talking about Aeris right?"

"I dunno," Tifa tilted her head to one side and let out a breath she'd been holding in, "proberbly."

"I would bet on it." Eclipse stated, the ends of her words clipped once more, she turned and crawled her way out of the vent. Soon they were all standing in the bathroom deciding what to do next.

"Hojo went up to the next floor, why don't we follow him? We might find Aeris if we do." Tifa suggested as they walked back to the stairs between floors.

Cloud stopped beside the door to the executives room and snapped his fingers suddenly.

"That's where I've heard about Anthros before! I once heard that Hojo was experimenting on one. When I was in SOLDIER."

Eclipse turned to look at him, her eyes flaring and her tail swishing quickly from side to side.

"He was experimenting on an Anthro? Full or Half?"

"I dunno….I just heard it from a friend in SOLDIER as well…I guess we'll see."

The group followed Hojo upstairs and around the floor into the Science research stock room, realising he wasn't moving from there they hid quickly behind some crates and held their breath. Hojo ordered a specimen to be prepared and then turned and headed up another floor in a nearby lift.

Tifa wandered over to the glass tube Hojo had been peering into and tapped on the glass.

"Specimen? Is it going to be used in a biological experiment?" She turned back to the group in time to see Eclipse's start in surprise and run over to the tube.

"An Anthro….I do not believe it…a Full-Anthro…." Then her eyes narrowed slightly, "It is feline. Typical, oh well." She turned back to the group, and gestured towards the lift. "Should we follow him?"

Cloud however seemed to be freaking out, he was writhing on the floor and pointing to a metal cell.

"J-Jenova! Sephiroth…so they brought it here…"

Barret frowned and looked into the tank that seemed to be high security as it was sealed with huge, great tumbler locks.

"This is friggin' stupid! Where's it's f-in head?" He shouted and took a small angry fit in the middle of the room.

Eclipse shook her head and sighed, she gestured towards the lift that Hojo had just used seconds ago.

"Shall we follow him?" She asked again in a slightly more forced tone than the one she had used before.

The group nodded, noticing how annoyed Eclipse seemed and piled into the small lift, but not before scooping up a Poison materia, the lift only seemed to go between two floors because it automatically started moving upwards.

"Yes yes, good, very good." Hojo smirked and nodded to himself as Aries was brought into another glass tube on this floor.

"Aeris!" Cloud ran forward towards Aeris' tube and turned to the rest of the group who ran to join him.

"Oh, so that's her name is it? She is a fine specimen… yes indeed, too bad her mother died."

Cloud reached for his sword angrily, but before he could get the weapon out and attack Hojo cut in.

"What, are you going to draw your sword now? Hmm, I wouldn't if I were you, you see this machinery is very delicate, without me who would operate it?"

"Ugh…." Cloud lowered his head and took his hand off his sword, Hojo was right, like it or not.

"That's better, bring in the other specimen!" Hojo signalled to one of his helpers in a booth behind them. The lift between the two glass tubes began to move down, when it returned it held the Full-Anthro from below, it growled a warning at Aeris and then crouched to the floor.

"What do you think your doing!" Cloud yelled, diving towards Hojo, the scientist merely chuckled.

"Helping the last of two dying species, without me these two animals would die out forever."

"Animal? That's awful! Aeris is a human being!" Tifa shouted, her hands on her hips and her eyes blazing.

"Barret, can't you do something!" Cloud indicated to the glass tank before him, thinking that he could get at the tube without hitting Hojo.

"Righ' leave it teh me!" Barret strode forwards and shot his gun-arm at the tank, the tank started to glow and when it cleared the door flew open.

Hojo opened his mouth to call for help but before he could, the feline Full-Anthro specimen leapt onto him pinning to the floor and started to tear at him. Hojo did manage to reach a button though and grinned to himself as the lift started to move downwards again.

Aeris leapt out of the tank and ran to Cloud smiling happily, Cloud and the gang looked over at her thankful that they had saved her without many complications.

"Cloud! I knew you would come for me, I knew it." She tilted her head at him and laughed.

"Cloud! The lift is moving up!" Tifa squealed and ran back over to the team quickly.

The Full-Anthro turned to face them and looked at Eclipse, finally tearing his gaze away it turned to Cloud.

"This is no ordinary specimen, it is a very ferocious specimen, he is quiet tough. I'll lend you a hand." He spoke in the same way as Eclipse except in a more casual tone.

"It spoke!" Tifa jumped back slightly in shock and nearly hit Eclipse who gave her a glare and walked forward.

"Of course he can, do you not remember anything I told you about Full-Anthros, they are just like humans in full animal form…." She gave the feline a glare, "Who are you?"

"Hojo named me Red XIII, call me this if you wish." Red licked his paws carefully and the lift reached the top of the tube, on it was one of the most hideous lab experiments ever seen.

"Tifa, take care of Aeris, Barret you too. Take her somewhere safe." The two ran off to the side as the monster attacked. Red, Eclipse and Cloud got into their battle stances and prepared to face the creature and it's three little helpers.

They had to use magic because they all had short range weapons, Cloud started with his Fire magic followed up by Eclipse with Ice and Red also with Fire. It seemed to be doing a lot of damage, but then the creature let out a polluted breath of fog that swept over the entire party. Cloud and Red dropped to their knees, they had been poisoned.

"H-how are you ok Eclipse?" Cloud coughed as the poison attack ate away at his heath making him weaker by the second. "Are you wearing any accessories?"

"Just this necklace Reno found ages ago, why?" Eclipse asked curiously, showing him the star shaped pendant.

"That's a Star Pendant, Eclipse, it protects against poison." Cloud coughed again, he was getting dizzy.

"Oh….I see, that is quiet handy." She threw Cloud and antidote and he then cast Fire on the HO512 again. Red used and antidote on himself and Eclipse cast Ice.

"Ow!" Cloud recoiled as one of the little round ball creatures slammed into him and Eclipse remembered that even though she had cured the poison the two were still weak, she cast Cure magic on all of them. The battle continued in this similar way, only changing pace when Red was knocked to the ground and didn't get back up, Cloud revived him with a Phoenix down and Eclipse healed him with Cure. Two more Fire spells and a dose of Red's limit break, which consisted of him charging full speed at the enemy and clawing and biting them, and the creature screamed horribly and collapsed to the floor.

"Phew!" Cloud sheathed his sword and sighed, it was hard but they had won, "Hey…what's this?" He moved over to the monster's fallen corpse and picked out a shiny object, "hey, it's a Talisman."

"What is a Talisman Cloud?" Eclipse seemed interested in the effects of accessories after Cloud had explained her Star Pendant.

"It increases spirit." Cloud explained, handing it to Barret who quickly equipped it to himself.

"Hmm, more prizes, looks like materia." Eclipse padded her way over to the glass tube and enclosed her hand around a yellow materia orb with resounding clicks in the silent area. "Enemy skill materia, since I know it's effects I should equip it?" It was more of a question than a statement. Cloud nodded and she gave Barret her Bolt materia and equipped the Enemy skill materia in it's place. "Let us leave this building." She made her way to the elevator and waited for it to come back to their level, Cloud meanwhile bullied Hojo's assistant for another key card. Not that they would need it.

"Yeah let's head for the sixty-sixth floor elevators. They should take us down to the ground floor."


End file.
